Statement of Philosophy

Introduction

A little over seven years ago, I moved back to Colorado after being an expatriate living in Northern Israel for close to 10 years.  I had been employed in Haifa most of those 10 years as a research scientist working on image processing applications and document understanding. I always tell people it took about 5 years to get over my culture shock because I was actually immersed in two very different cultures. My husband and his family are part of the 150,000 Christian Arabs left in Israel, a population that is a minority within a minority. Arabs are the largest minority in Israel, but most are either Muslim or Druse. Aside from speaking predominately Arabic, the culture is very Middle Eastern. At work, everyone I worked with was Jewish, whose culture is mostly taken from Europe. One of my favorite differences I like to use as an example is that of the use of seat-belts. The village I lived in is a town of about 50,000 Arabs. In Israel, seat-belts are mandatory as they are here in the U.S. However, in our village, if you get into a car with someone and put on your seat-belt, it is a great insult. Most people will assume you think the driver is a horrible driver and you fear for your life. Putting on the belt is a statement that you don’t trust the driver. On the other hand, within the Jewish community, the use of seat-belts is similar to what we are used to in the west.

One of the things I missed the most was libraries and local access to affordable books. As I have mentioned in the diversity competency, the library in our village held mostly books in Hebrew and it was not free. My husband and I did not have any children when we first moved to Israel, but within 5 years we had three. Because of this, we had no children’s books. Consequently, I became very good at bidding on Ebay for boxes of books, mostly children’s books in English because I loved to read to my kids. The customs office in Haifa where the boxes of books would go through on the way to me was convinced I was running a clandestine business selling English children’s books on the Black Market. This was a reasonable assumption considering that books in general cost at least four times what they do in the U.S. I had figured out how to win bids on boxes of old books where the cost of shipping was higher than what I paid for the books. When we moved back to the U.S. in 2009, half of our container contained books.

All of this is relevant to my statement of philosophy for several reasons. I don’t believe I would have pursued another degree (after a Masters and Ph.D. in computer science) if I did not have the experiences I did in the Middle East. Add to the day to day challenges of just living in a completely different culture,  two wars, unpredictable violence and near misses with death (my husband once missed a bus that later blew up in Haifa (Wikipedia, 2015), a Jewish soldier shot up a bus with an automatic weapon a half block from our home (Wikipedia, 2016), and cowering in a bathroom for 34 days during the 2nd Lebanon War with rockets slamming into the ground near us). As Americans we rarely get to experience the type of daily tension and knowledge that it could literally all go up in smoke in a heartbeat. As a mother, I was constantly terrified for my children. After the war, I was openly accused of being a traitor and “with Hezbolla” (even though most of the Israelis that died were actually Arab). There are no anti-discrimination laws that could keep my manager from firing me, especially since I could be considered a security threat. I was very fortunate to have been working with people in the U.S. who were able to get me out of the situation before I could be fired. After almost 10 years living in a war zone and the experience of being directly discriminated against because of who I wasn’t, I have a deep understanding of why democracy is so important and what can happen when people are not informed or ill-informed about other people and cultures.

When I returned to the U.S. I discovered I could get an MLIS completely on-line and I saw this as a way to eventually tell my cautionary story.  The first part of that story is what happens when we don’t respect diversity. It is not only the ethical thing to do, but if minorities and those with no voice go unheard for long enough, eventually the pot will boil over and no one will be able to control it. In the U.S. we have a very simplistic view of the situation in the Middle East when in fact it is quite complicated and our politicians pour oil on the fire by giving large quantities of money and weapons to one side. The second part of this story is that we in the U.S. take so much for granted. My children never went to a park, never saw a movie in a theatre, never swam in a pool, never experienced a free library, and had no idea what going for a walk in nature was until we moved back when my oldest was in 3rd grade. All of these places and experiences were either off-limits to Arabs or it was simply too dangerous because a bomb might go off. People need to understand how easily we might give up freedoms we have in the U.S because we are willing to trade security for those freedoms.  I know what it is like to have every one of my phone calls monitored by the police, to be searched and questioned about why I married an Arab, having my children pulled aside and questioned about whether I really was their mother. I had to be constantly on guard about what I said in letters and emails to family and friends in the U.S. If I had had no prior idea of what life can be like without these intrusions into my privacy, I might have been much angrier than I already was and I saw what it did to those who did not have that experience or the means to get out, like we eventually did.

 Within the first semester of the MLIS program, I felt I had found “my people” and over the course of the next 6 years that never changed. It was an amazing experience for me and I realized how much I missed it. I fell into a group of people who felt as strongly as I did about protecting democracy and letting everyone, regardless of their differences, have a voice. I found a group of people who were incensed about the intrusions into my private life in the name of security. I think I originally went looking for a library science education was because books were my connection to my own culture. And I see now why I could never have done the on-line degree from Israel, even though it was physically possible. Whenever I was able to return to the U.S.  for a conference or some other business meeting, I always set aside an entire day to go to a huge independent bookstore. I would buy basket-loads of books and then ship them to myself in Israel. Books were my comfort food and literally helped me keep my sanity in an insane world.  I will forever be grateful for the ability and opportunity to complete this degree. Today I hope this degree will take me in a direction that will allow me to be an inspiration for others.

Librarians as Keepers of the Keys

 A librarian needs to be well versed in technology, both current technology and technology on the horizon. We know how to find information that meets the needs of everyone who comes in for help. We are managers, educators, and we know the difference between quality and bogus information. We know how to whip up programming that meets the needs of the community in which we are embedded. We can recommend a good book based on what you like, we can tell a good story, and know how to get the materials community members want. On top of that, we know how treat everyone, patrons and coworkers alike, as individuals and make them feel heard and included. We bend over backwards to ensure our materials are accessible to everyone and if someone doesn’t know how to do something, we show them. We work hard to preserve the human record, especially the records from our community. We fiercely protect the privacy of everyone. We fight against censorship of all materials whether we personally like them or not. We hold democratic ideals and look for ways to ensure our community is as informed as possible about both local and national issues that may affect them. As librarians, we are all about making sure the right information gets to the right people at the right time. We are the custodians of information in our community for all generations, including future generations, and we take that responsibility very seriously.

Professional Goals

After six years in the MLIS program at the San José State University iSchool, I have a great deal more aspirations than I did when I started the program. As a technologist, I am hyperaware of the role technology plays in the lives of people in the 21st century. I know from several different research projects that the jobs forecast for our children contains a huge percentage of jobs requiring some education and experience in Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM). For those children whose families cannot afford to buy electronics on a regular basis, the library may be the only place these kids are exposed to technology. Some schools, depending on the economic situation may be able to offer programming for STEM, but the fact is that many schools do not have either the expertise or the funding to offer such programming.

My main goal is to create programs for children (and especially girls) to get enough exposure to STEM to pique their interest. I have had a lot of success at the local elementary school (Mrs. Weeks’ Tech Class Blog, 2016) bringing STEM afterschool programs to 4th and 5th graders. I have worked hard to encourage the girls that participate in these programs and just recently I was told by a parent that her 5th grade daughter loves working with computers now because she did both the FLL (First Lego League) and Minecraft afterschool clubs.  For me this is validation that by simply giving the kids the opportunity to play with technologies will have an impact on their lives. Also as part of the effort to bring technology into the classroom, I wrote a grant (awarded this year) for the same school as part of a course I took in my MLIS. I also wrote an instructional unit for teachers and parents to start up a First Lego League team as part of my Instructional Design course. This helped me to solidify the process so I am able to take this to any learning situation such as a library or other school. It also allows the school to continue the program long after I have moved on and am no longer involved. As a result of the work I have done with the tech librarian, the school was recently recognized by the school district for our work. A group of 30 educators from across the country and from our district came to see presentations by the students on their projects in Lego League and Minecraft, as well as other work with 3D printers.

Another goal I have concerns the idea of bringing people together from all over the world in virtual environments for learning and building community. As part of my e-portfolio, I have shown the work I have done for the Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration in Second Life, the work I’ve done in 3 different virtual worlds courses, my directorship of a large virtual community library, and the work I am doing on a virtual island dedicated to teaching K-12 teachers about encouraging girls to consider STEM careers. I am interested in providing virtual services that target many of the issues that physical libraries experience, such as addressing diversity, education on information literacy and digital citizenship, and advancing the cause of democracy. These virtual worlds not only connect people who are physically distributed, but also those who may not be able to visit a real library. In Second Life, there is an island dedicated to information about and for folks with disabilities called Virtual Ability. Many in this community are home-bound and hanging out in Second Life with other home-bound people help them to feel like they are connected. These relationships are as real as they would be if they were to meet these friends in real life.

Librarians are the Super-Heroes of Democracy

My years in Israel taught me something positive that you don’t normally find in American society and that we could benefit from. Happiness never came from acquiring material goods, happiness was the time spent with family and friends. It was sitting outside after dark when the temperature dropped below 90 degrees in 90 percent humidity and laughing together about the antics of our young children and my hilarious attempts to express myself in Arabic. There were cross-cultural exchanges almost on a daily basis and discussions on how we did things in the U.S. (and how Hollywood movies are not a great representation of real life in America). Home and celebrations like Easter and Christmas with the extended family was my cocoon and where I felt the safest. Everyone deserves at least that. To be acknowledged and to celebrate one’s culture. As a librarian I will strive to make everyone who come in looking for help feel listened to and safe and try approach each interaction with some humor. I will admit that I can be impatient sometimes with the general cluelessness of some Americans, but I will try to turn that impatience into an opportunity to help them understand that there are different ways of looking at things.

The privatization of more and more public services means we have to be on guard against pressures that would privatize or outsource library services. Everyone loses in this situation, the community and the librarians alike. There are some places where the profit motive simply does not work. You can’t have equitable services for everyone in the entire community if the bottom line is all about money. The bottom line for public libraries should always be about providing equitable services and access, celebrating diversity, preserving our community’s heritage, education for lifelong learning, and helping each other out without fear of interference from outside powerful interests. Taken together, this strengthens the community the library exists for and elevates democracy above money.  Libraries may very well be last standing bastions of democracy in the U.S. and the counterbalance that brings us to our senses as a nation.

Conclusions

This statement of philosophy has shown how my experience in the MLIS program at the San José State University iSchool together with my life experiences has shaped my philosophy on librarianship. As one chapter of my life closes, a new chapter opens for me in a way I could never have imagined had I not faced the challenges and opportunities I describe both here and in other places in the e-portfolio. As I start a new phase in my career, I hope to be able to make a difference in the lives of people in my own community.

References

Mrs. Weeks’ Tech Class Blog. (2016). The importance of STEM for elementary girls, Thursday, January 7, 2016. Retrieved from: http://weekstechclass.blogspot.com/, Accessed April 5, 2016.

The New York Sun. (2006). Two killed in Hezbollah rocket attack on Nazareth. Retrieved from: http://www.nysun.com/foreign/two-killed-in-hezbollah-rocket-attack-on-nazareth/36352/, Accessed April 5, 2016.

Wikipedia (2016). Eden Natan-Zada. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Natan-Zada, Accessed April 5, 2016.

Wikipedia (2015). Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haifa_bus_37_suicide_bombing, Accessed April 5, 2016.